After 13 years of looking to the skies, The X-Files fans are finally getting the answer for which they’ve been searching — Fox is bringing back the paranormal investigations show. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will be reprising their roles as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully respectively, and creator Chris Carter is returning to develop the series.
While all this news is very exciting, there is one aspect that may be disappointing for some: it will only be a six-part series. When speculation about the revival started coming out of the TV network’s camp in January, Duchovny told USA Today he was excited at the prospect of reprising his role with Anderson, but… “Certainly I can’t nor would I be interested in doing a full season. It will be in some kind of limited form. We’re all old, we don’t have the energy for a full season,” he quipped.
“I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” said Carter of the reboot. “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”
The series ran from 1993 to 2002, and the pair was last seen together in 2008, starring in the show’s second feature film, The X Files: I Want to Believe. It was Fox’s first major hit series and earned 16 Emmy awards over the course of its run. For two of the network’s executive’s it’s also a reunion as chairmen and CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman were with the studio when it launched the sci-fi procedural more than 20 years ago.
“We had the privilege of working with Chris on all nine seasons of The X-Files — one of the most rewarding, creative experiences of our careers — and we couldn’t be more excited to explore that incredible world with him again,” said Newman and Walden. “The X-Files was not only a seminal show for both the studio and the network, it was a worldwide phenomenon that shaped pop culture — yet remained a true gem for the legions of fans who embraced it from the beginning. Few shows on television have drawn such dedicated fans as The X-Files, and we’re ecstatic to give them the next thrilling chapter of Mulder and Scully they’ve been waiting for.”
Production is set to begin this summer, but no air date has yet been announced.
